Never Was A Hero
by Joker's Apprentince
Summary: I started off as just another nerd playing a video game, but after a freak accident involving a bolt of lightning and said video game, I woke up, oddly enough, at the end of MK9. Well the only thing I can do now is adapt and survive, and hope everything turns out okay. Rated M because it is Mortal Kombat. Mostly Canon pairings and you guys to pick my OC's romantic interest.


So I decided to try this whole self-insert thing, and I figured I would try it with an idea I had after seeing the ending to the MKX storyline numerous times.

Also I should all of you know that I am considering just giving up writing fanfiction, because I am currently going to college and most likely going to get a job in the near future I will have almost no time to update, even as sparsely as I do now.

But anyway you ever loyal readers, who put up with my not updating regularly, the usual rules apply.

Let me know what you guys think by giving me the precious (aka reviews), also I do not own MK or any of its characters, cause if I did I wouldn't be on here.

NOW ON WITH THE SHOW! –Presses a red button with a skull on it-

Raiden, the God of Lightning and Storms and Protector of Earthrealm, lay beaten in the cold mud, his armor broken and a blood like substance oozing from numerous cuts all over his body, as the one who had beaten him stood looking at him in anger and disgust. Raiden had expected the one to defeat him to be another god, like Fujin, or maybe a resurrected Shao Khan. But no, the one to defeat him was a simple man from another, alternate version of Earth realm, where neither the Mortal Kombat tournament nor the Elder Gods existed. The man stood at six feet tall, currently wearing a blue and dark grey sleeveless gi top with the outline of animal totems, such as a bear, lion, falcon, and snake, going down the front with a dark blue shirt with sleeves that went to his elbows which were covered with Shinobi armguards with metal studs on the knuckles, black cargo pants, a dark blue cloth belt tied around his waist, and black combat boots covering his feet, he also had a full salt and pepper beard that matched his hair, which he almost always kept short, and a dark blue right eye, his lost left eye being replaced by a cybernetic enhancement that gave off a dark green light.

"The Elder Gods will strike you down for this affront," Raiden threatened, glaring up at the man who had beaten him, while he tried to summon electricity. Like Raiden hoped the man looked to the sky, in clear mockery of Raiden, who realized that he the lightning he could normally summon without much thought wasn't coming.

"Looks like the Elder Gods no longer favor you," the man said, his Southern United States accent making itself clear. With that sentence finished a green, ethereal glow surrounded the man as it took on the shape of a grizzly bear.

"How," Raiden asked, wondering how he had been beaten by a mortal.

"It's said gods grow weak when they step outside their sphere of influence," the man answered, as the ethereal bear finally became clear, "if I remember your sphere was as a protector, not a conqueror. But if it's any consolation it was still a tough fight."

With Raiden's question answered, and his piece said, the man clenched his hand into a fist and drove it through Raiden's chest, right through where the heart would be on a mortal and yanked it out, revealing Raiden's, and formerly Shinnok's, amulet. With that Raiden's screamed as numerous Chinese Dragon like shapes attacked the fallen god and he screamed in pain as golden cracks appeared in his skin before a beam of light shot into the cloudy sky, with Raiden disappearing when the light faded. When the last of the light dissipated the sky cleared up showing a blue sky and the sun gently warming the earth below. When the light had full faded away a young man, who looked similar to the older man who had just beaten Raiden, limped to the side of the one who had defeated the fallen god, with the younger of the two holding his ribs.

"It is done," the young man asked, looking at the amulet in the older man's hand.

"Not quite," the older of the two said, also looking down at the amulet, "we still need to get rid of this thing."

"What do we do with it," the young man asked, eyeing the mystical object warily.

"If it were up to me I would bury the thing so deep not even in the Devil could find it," the older man answered before sighing. All he could do now was pocket the amulet till a solution could be found for the cursed object. For now all the man could do was silently chuckle to himself as he recalled that this whole venture started twenty-five years ago with a video game and a bolt of lightning.

Twenty-five years ago…

Sighing, I browsed through the character select screen for Mortal Kombat X, until ultimately I settled on the DLC character Tremor, perhaps one of the characters I had little trouble using, the others being Jax using his wrestler style and Triborg's Cyrax configuration. You see I live almost vicariously through video game characters, cause in them I am a hero, a savior, a bringer of justice, and a person who fights for those who cannot fight for themselves, instead of a twenty-three year old who still lives at home with his parents and is having to slog through college in hopes of getting a job that might pay enough to get me a decent apartment. Now who to get him to fight? His pre-fight interactions with Johnny Cage were interesting, but I had yet to get him to fight Sonya or Cassie. Sighing, I just selected randomly select fighter to see who I would go against. It was at that moment that a bolt of lightning, which came from out of nowhere, struck the TV and in what I can only call a freaky sequence of events, travelled along the HDMI cord to the PS4 I was playing on, travelled along the ten foot-long charging cable I was using to the controller, and went through the controller into my hands.

' _Dad's gonna be so pissed when he sees the hole in the roof_ ,' I thought as I passed out from the pain.

Meanwhile on another Earth…

Raiden silently thanked the Elder Gods for their intervention on the matter of Shao Khan; it was in the middle of these thanks that he bore witness to something that gave him a cold feeling. A grey bolt of lightning struck the ground where Shao Khan had lain not ten minutes ago. Where the lightning bolt had struck laid a being that looked human, along with most beings in the realms, he was wearing blue pants with white stripes going down each leg, a black shirt with an armored warrior on it with words that read 'In War, Victory, In Peace, Vigilance, In Death Sacrifice', he noted that if the human looking being had stood up he would be about six feet tall, he also noted that the being had brown hair, and Raiden noted that the being was making a noise like he was trying to breathe, but no air was going to his lungs. Immediately the being was swarmed by medical personnel.

"Status," one of the medics called out.

"Shortness of breath," another called out, before they pressed down on the being's chest, causing the being to let out a silent scream of pain and then the medic noticed the unique scarring pattern on the beings arms and the fact the where the pupils were supposed to be on the eye it was milky white, "scar pattern, pain in the chest, and possible blindness in both eyes point to suffering from severe electrocution, most likely lightning."

That caught Raiden's attention, this being had been struck by lightning? Reading the energy signature from the being he sensed an almost divine power rolling off him, most likely from the lightning bolt that had struck him.

' _Curious_ ,' Raiden thought to himself, he would need to keep a close eye on this being.

Hours later…

I highly recommend that you never get struck by lightning, trust me whatever pictures of cool scars you saw on the internet of people who had been struck by lightning they aren't worth it. Honestly it feels like someone parked a fully loaded tank on my chest and the treads that weren't on me got stuck in mud and they were trying to get it out. Not to mention the fact that it felt someone was firing off every piece of artillery known to man inside my head, and let's not forget my back, especially right along the spine, felt like someone was dragging me across one long line of sharp, rusty scrap metal with each piece meticulously coated in a mixture of salt and battery acid. It was then I felt a pleasant tingling all over my body, now while the lightning bolt had felt like the wrath of God, this sensation felt like I soaking a hot bath after a long day. Slowly the darkness that had thus far plagued my vision began to lift, slowly starting off as shadows, which formed shapes, and then everything slowly formed into a clear picture, and boy I was I shocked when I found the source. Now I would very much like to say I took it calmly and I was level headed about the whole thing. However the fact of the matter is that if I had control of my limbs I would have bolted screaming like a mad man, and probably would have been tazed, pepper sprayed, tear gassed, or any combination thereof.

"He looks like he's coming to," said a voice, slowly turning my head which with the lingering pain still feeling like someone was using my spine as a baseball bat, I saw none other than Johnny Cage, complete with shades and his name tattooed across his chest, next to him stood Sonya Blade in her MK IX costume, and Kenshi Takahashi, oddly enough in his MKX costume.

"Maybe we can get some answers now," Sonya declared, glaring at me. With that said all the pain left my body and now I looked to the foot of my bed and saw Raiden, looking at me with what I am assuming was curiosity, like someone who was trying to figure out a puzzle.

"Can't be real," I muttered, looking at all of them wide eyed, and then I began saying it like a mantra. Now this reaction caused confusion between the four kombatants gathered in the stranger's hospital rooms. With the exception of Kenshi, they were used to be recognized, Johnny because of his films, Sonya because of her military service, and Raiden because he was a god.

"It's all just a dream," the stranger stated, more to himself than them, "I am gonna wake up any second now on the couch."

When the stranger finished that sentence Johnny, because he is an asshole, pinched the skin on the stranger's arms, which caused the stranger to yelp as a sharp pain hit him where he had been pinched.

"Ok not a dream," the stranger said, looking at the four of them in fear before he jumped out of the bed, bolted for the open window, took a quick look down, and was promptly dragged back to the bed by Sonya because he froze at the sight of how far down it was to the ground.

"Answers," Sonya demanded; a vicious glare fixed onto her otherwise features. Seeing as how the stranger was still mumbling about how none of this was real, she was getting ready to start beating answers out of the stranger, her justification being that he could possibly be the vanguard for another invasion.

"Allow me," Kenshi stated, extending a hand towards the stranger and using his telepathy to get enough answers to satisfy Sonya. Kenshi immediately received a rush of images into his mind.

"His name is Cody Rawlings," Kenshi stated, after thirty seconds of delving into the stranger's mind, "and this is going to sound strange, but he is from another earth."

"Another Earthrealm," Raiden asked curiously.

"No," Kenshi answered, "he is from a parallel universe. In it there is no Mortal Kombat, Shao Khan, Elder Gods, or other realms, and we're all characters in a fighting game."

Raiden began pondering this, just the idea where there was no Mortal Kombat tournament because there was no threat to Earthrealm was enticing to the god. But in this other earth they didn't exist, and they were used as a form of amusement.

"So there are no kombatants," Raiden asked, "no fighting?"

"Human beings are born with the idea engrained into their DNA that aggression is a means of survival," the stranger, now identified as Cody, answered, sounding oddly calm for someone who had found himself in a universe belonging to a video game, "so there is fighting amongst nations and as a sport."

That saddened Raiden; he had always hoped that if the threat of Mortal Kombat was removed then maybe Earthrealm would be at peace. But upon hearing that the fighting would continue, even without the threat of conquest from another realm, it almost destroyed any hope he had of such a thing happening.

"So what happens to me now," Cody asked, his blue eyes darting between the four other people in his room in fear.

"From what I have seen he is not much of a fighter," Kenshi stated to the others, "he preferred reading books to learning martial arts. But he does know some basics, particularly in Tae Kwon Do and Jujitsu."

"But not enough to engage in kombat," Raiden asked/stated, his brow furrowing in thought.

"With training maybe," Kenshi stated.

"Should he be trained though," Sonya asked, glaring at Cody, like she expected for an illusion to drop and reveal he was really a Tarkatan soldier here to kill them all.

"Here's an idea," Johnny announced, "let's see what the kid can do first."

"Something that makes sense coming from the mouth of Johnny Cage," Cody stated in shock and confusion, "can somebody check outside for fireballs raining from the sky and other signs of the apocalypse please?"

"As interesting as that development was," Kenshi said, "Johnny does have a point."

"Let me know the results," Raiden stated, just before he disappeared in a thunder clap. Sonya and Johnny walked out to start making preparations, more so Sonya than Johnny, leaving only Cody and Kenshi in the room.

"So everything that happened in that game we're in," Kenshi began.

"Does it really happen," Cody finished, already seeing where the blind swordsman was going, Kenshi nodded, showing that that was what he was going to ask, "who knows, maybe it does and maybe it doesn't."

"What do you mean," Kenshi asked, not really wanting a cryptic answer.

"Simple," Cody answered, speaking to Kenshi like one would a child, "that is one possible future that may not come to pass now that you and I know about it. Besides it wouldn't do any good to try and change it, because we might end up making everything worse."

"How do you mean," Kenshi asked, curious now.

"Nearest guess I got is it's like adding something new to a recipe," I explained as best I could, after all my knowledge of time travel and mucking up timelines comes from Family Guy, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, and a few episodes of Sleepy Hollow, "sure it might make things better, but it might completely ruin the recipe as well."

"We better get going," Kenshi stated, getting at least a vague understanding of why messing with timelines was bad.

"Yeah," I replied, sighing and dreading what might come next, "something tells me Sonya Blade doesn't like to be kept waiting."

"Understatement of the century," Kenshi stated, guiding me to where my 'evaluation' would take place.

So after a little thought, I have determined what fighting styles the fanfic me will have and they are:

Shaman: Gains the ability to use Bear Pummel, Lion Maul, and Falcon Grab

Bear Pummel: Grabs the opponent's shoulders and hits them once in the face, chest, and then uppercuts them.

Lion Maul: Tackles the opponent to the ground and rapidly punches the target in the face.

Falcon Slam: While in the air I grab the opponent's throat and choke slams them

Conduit: Gains improved Lion Roar, Snake Vice, and Lion Claw weapon.

Nature's Fury: Gains Berserk Stance, Back Breaker, and Punishing Blow.

Fatality: Eat Your Heart Out: I form my hand into a claw shape and shove it into my opponent's chest and yank out their heart. Then I shove their heart into their mouth.

That's all for now, let me know if you guys and girls liked it and if you did I will attempt to do a chapter where it is just about the banter I will have with the characters.

Also here are your choice of pairings for me in the story: Li Mei, Tanya, or Jade (I will work up a plausible reason as for why she is alive).

Till then –is dressed as Darth Vader- REVIEW IT IS YOUR DESTINY!


End file.
